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Review: Tone House New York

So, I consider myself in relatively good shape. I don’t shy away from the more intense fitness classes, and I always like to push myself. I had no idea what I was in for.

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I signed up on a whim for a lunchtime class through ClassPass because of the proximity to my apartment. When I showed up, I was surprised to see only one long room and about seven others waiting for the class to begin.

I initially assumed that this was just a small turnout but quickly realized that the class couldn’t operate with any more people. Our two chiseled trainers called us together for a kick off pep talk and “go team” cheer. I thought this was strange at first, as I’m used to the snobbier keep-to-yourself fitness gyms. More on that later.

We quickly broke off into an incredibly intense warm up that involved several intervals of high knees, jumps, shuffles, sprints etc. By the end of the “warm up,” I was questioning my uninformed sign up.

I also noticed, while heaving, that one of my shirtless cohorts had put on a high altitude training mask that made him look like a fit Darth Vader. I was having trouble catching my breath yet I was surrounded by people who were voluntarily breathing less. This was not a game, people.

After the warm up, we broke up into teams of three and started suicide sprint intervals across the room, ending in a back-and-forth floor gallop that had me quite literally crawling desperately over the finish line.

Teammates cheered for me, encouraged me, and high-fived me every step of the way. I loved these people by the end of the hour. I was struggling hard but I felt like I was running a race with this kind of athletic encouragement.

After sprints, my legs were jello. That didn’t stop our trainer from having us move immediately to interval sets of 60 squats and then a sandbag pushing exercise. I think I pretty much blacked out after this. We did a group exercise with mountain climbers and abs, and then moved onto TRX lunges and jumps with bands. My legs weren’t working, but I powered through.

The same cheering carried through the entire class. The two instructors were all smiles despite pushing us to the ultimate extreme. I left feeling completely beat but weirdly full of positivity and happiness.

The only downside was my soreness level. I was so sore the next morning that I thought I had caught the infamous CrossFit Rhabdo. I couldn’t work out or take the stairs for a full day and a half. It felt like post-marathon pain, and it told me I’m clearly not working my muscles as hard as I thought.

This is not a class for the weak, but it is a class for those really committed to getting stronger.

Will I do this again? Absolutely. Will I dread it? Yep. If I did this consistently would I see crazy results? No doubt.